Results 1,641-1,660 of 8,873 for speaker:Batt O'Keeffe

Primary School Provision. (1 Dec 2009)

Batt O'Keeffe: The two major projects in the Deputy's area of County Mayo that I announced early this year have commenced. One is nearly completed, so the Deputy cannot claim that Mayo has been left out of the frame. It has done well. I will maintain a balance between developing, rural and urban areas. The Government is committed to ensuring sufficient funding for a schools programme. Last year saw the...

School Discipline. (1 Dec 2009)

Batt O'Keeffe: Section 29 of the Education Act 1998 provides parents with an appeal process where a board of management of a school or a person acting on behalf of it expels or suspends a pupil for a period of greater than 20 days or refuses to enrol a student. Concerning expulsions, a total of 91 appeals were lodged in 2006 and 69 of these went to hearing, of which 23 were upheld. In 2007, a total of 76...

School Discipline. (1 Dec 2009)

Batt O'Keeffe: One can make one's own case. One in four appeals has been upheld. Many cases - 40% of suspensions and 20% of expulsions - are resolved before they go outside the school. I wish to speak about the system that is in place. If a better or more efficient system were available, I would consider it. It is important to examine the structure of the appeals process. One makes one's appeal to the...

School Discipline. (1 Dec 2009)

Batt O'Keeffe: It is important to emphasise that each parent has the right to go to court. Deputy Brian Hayes suggested recently that parents should go to the High Court. I would like to give some comparative figures in that context. The facilitation cost of a section 29 appeal is €500. The price of a full hearing is €1,000. If a parent opts for a judicial review, he or she would incur a cost of...

School Discipline. (1 Dec 2009)

Batt O'Keeffe: It would cost €100,000 in all.

School Discipline. (1 Dec 2009)

Batt O'Keeffe: Given that an independent process is in place, surely the Deputy is not trying to ask parents to bring cases of this nature to the High Court.

School Discipline. (1 Dec 2009)

Batt O'Keeffe: The independent process is far less costly and takes less time.

School Discipline. (1 Dec 2009)

Batt O'Keeffe: A great deal of time and stress is involved for parents who go to the High Court.

School Discipline. (1 Dec 2009)

Batt O'Keeffe: I thought it was a daft idea, to be honest. It would cost a great deal of money.

Information and Communications Technology. (1 Dec 2009)

Batt O'Keeffe: The Deputy will be aware that €252 million is being invested in information and communications technology, ICT, in schools under the national development plan between 2007 and 2013. The national development plan also required that a detailed ICT strategy be published by my Department to target investment appropriately. The report of the strategy, Investing Effectively in ICT in Schools...

Residential Institutions Redress Board. (1 Dec 2009)

Batt O'Keeffe: Following the publication of the Ryan report, this House passed a unanimous motion calling on the congregations to commit to making further substantial contributions by way of reparation. In June of this year, the Taoiseach and the relevant Ministers, including me, met representatives of the 18 religious congregations that were party to the 2002 indemnity agreement. The congregations...

Residential Institutions Redress Board. (1 Dec 2009)

Batt O'Keeffe: Of course we were disappointed with the progress made. Did we contact the congregations? Yes, we did. The Taoiseach wrote to them as did my Secretary General, giving them a deadline by which time their contributions would be made known. We are now at a stage where one outstanding contribution is to be made known to me and I understand this will be done during the week. An e-mail or text...

Residential Institutions Redress Board. (1 Dec 2009)

Batt O'Keeffe: I thought the Deputy was younger than me.

Residential Institutions Redress Board. (1 Dec 2009)

Batt O'Keeffe: There are two issues here. We wanted to do the opposite, namely, not to make the contributions public because I wanted to give the survivors an opportunity to be the first to know, after the Government had considered both the panel report and the offers made. With regard to Deputy Quinn's point, the important thing is that when the Taoiseach and other Ministers met them the congregations...

Written Answers — Small School Closures: Small School Closures (1 Dec 2009)

Batt O'Keeffe: I propose to take Questions Nos. 46 and 50 together. As the Deputy will be aware, the Special Group on Public Services and Expenditure was established to examine current expenditure programmes in each Government Department and to make recommendations to Government for ensuring a return to sustainable public finances. The report outlined that of the 3,200 primary schools in the State,...

Written Answers — Multi-Denominational Schools: Multi-Denominational Schools (1 Dec 2009)

Batt O'Keeffe: I propose to take Questions Nos. 47 and 389 together. As I stated in my reply to Deputy Hayes today, I have had several meetings with Protestant representatives, most recently on 21 October, when I met with the Committee on Management for Protestant Schools. At that meeting, I invited the committee to join a working group with my officials to explore future measures to support their...

Written Answers — Higher Education Grants: Higher Education Grants (1 Dec 2009)

Batt O'Keeffe: My Department acknowledges that some students are experiencing delays in the processing of their grant applications. It is understood that both local authorities and VECs, the awarding bodies for student grants, received an unprecedented number of student grant applications this year with increases in applications up by 30% in some areas. In some instances, late applications are still being...

Written Answers — School Management: School Management (1 Dec 2009)

Batt O'Keeffe: My Department is considering a number of broad policy issues relating to the recognition process for second level schools and the application from Educate Together to be recognised as a patron body at second level is being fully examined within the context of the relevant legal, financial and other factors. In recent talks between officials from my Department and representatives from...

Written Answers — Flood Damage: Flood Damage (1 Dec 2009)

Batt O'Keeffe: I propose to take Questions Nos. 52 and 60 together. I am very conscious of the hardship being experienced by many people across the country due to the recent unprecedented flooding. In regard to University College Cork specifically, I visited the University yesterday to view the position at first hand. My Department has also received an initial report from the University Authorities...

Written Answers — Schools Building Projects: Schools Building Projects (1 Dec 2009)

Batt O'Keeffe: As I have indicated previously to the House, I am currently in the process of reviewing my Department's school building and modernisation programme with my officials in the context of the Estimates for 2010. I intend making a further announcement on the school building programme when that review has been completed. Decisions in respect of the expenditure of the annual allocation are made on...